President Donald Trump congratulates Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., while House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., watches to acknowledge the final passage of tax overhaul legislation by Congress at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 2017.

Congressional Republicans are betting that the new tax legislation will distract from their repeated failures to implement a policy agenda that appeals to middle-class Americans. It’s a bet they are going to lose.

Tax policy reveals a political party’s true colors — its priorities and who it advocates for provide unique insight into the party’s vision for the country. Is it a party that believes the tax code should be structured in a way that promotes upward mobility? Or is it one that focuses on protecting the wealthiest at the expense of those struggling to make ends meet?

At a time where Republicans have gone out of their way to promote ideas and policies that are antithetical to middle-class priorities, their tax plan is providing the clearest sign yet of whose side they are on.

House Republicans pushed a tax bill that would make medical events more expensive, curb state and local property tax deductions for homeowners, add more money to the pockets of the rich by phasing out the estate tax and drive graduate students into poverty. And the Senate plan is even worse: gutting the Affordable Care Act, making home ownership and student loans more expensive and increasing taxes for anyone earning less than $75,000 a year.

Evidently, the GOP has a penchant for dismantling vital resources like health care and education to pay for even more tax breaks for the 1 percent.

Case in point is a new loophole in the Senate’s proposal to exempt private jet owners from paying taxes on various services related to maintaining their planes — things like aircraft storage, maintenance, fueling, hiring of pilots and crew, flight planning, and weather forecasting. Put another way, the Republican tax plan essentially says that if you own a $20,000 car, you have to pay taxes on the cost of parking it in a garage; but if you own a $20 million jet, you can park it in the airport hangar tax-free.

This sort of favoritism toward the mega-rich should come as no surprise considering that American passengers already foot more than 90 percent of the bill for millionaire and billionaire high-end jet owners to fly around the country.

Private aviation costs the Federal Aviation Administration (more than $1 billion a year, yet wealthy CEOs and private jet owners contribute less than 1 percent into the FAA’s trust fund to pay for things like air traffic control operations. The difference is made up by taxpayers like you and me in the form of 14 different taxes and fees we get hit with every time we buy a plane ticket.

This already-unfair funding makes the new private jet tax breaks particularly hard to stomach. Apparently if you own a home or a vehicle, you’re expected to pay taxes on the costs to maintain those things. But if you are a 1 percenter who can afford your own private jet, Republican senators think you deserve a freebie.

It is hard to defend the reasoning or explain the logic behind this latest Republican proposal. No matter how you slice it, doing away with tax breaks that help the middle-class pay for health care, buy homes, and get an education so that billionaires can save a few bucks on their private jet maintenance costs is a slap in the face to every hardworking, taxpaying American.

If Senate Republicans want to help all Americans, they should restore the middle-class tax breaks for health care, mortgages and student loans and drop giveaways like the gift they are giving to private jet owners.

On an election year, voters will be watching, especially the 99 percent who are being ignored, and every new tax break for the wealthy only makes their choice at the ballot box easier this November.

Becky Ogle, a longtime disability rights activist, is the former executive director of the Presidential Task Force on the Employment of Adults with Disabilities under President Bill Clinton and a former senior advisor on policy for the Department of Labor under President Barack Obama.

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